Why does tea taste better in certain mugs?

[anywebsite]

It tastes best if you make it in a warmed china teapot & drink it out of china teacups, with your little finger stuck out.

 

If you brew tea in a mug with a teabag, it has to be a white mug & you have to heat the cup with boiling water before brewing. Stoneware actually works better if you heat it up properly. You need a really high temperature to brew tea, it should be close to 100c, a cold mug lowers the temp of the water, especially if its a cold stoneware mug.

[spooky3]

If you want a proper answer, taste is closely related to smell. Tea, similar to wine will taste different out of differently shaped drinking vessels. Different shapes and volumes will affect the aroma and the flow of the steam and the experience of putting your face close to the liquid to drink.

The colour of the mug must be some kind of psycologial effect. It makes no sense that a different colour could afect the taste. Although a different material will affect the experience because of the differences in heat transfer between the cup and your face.

 

The colour will affect heat and heat loss. Also maybe particle vibration.

[spooky3]

I have a favourite cup for my tea. It's China, white inside, and with a pink pattern on the outside. The logo on it says something about shoe shopping.

 

My late brother in law used to have a pint-pot, from which he drank his tea. He insisted it not be washed (weshed!)

 

It used to build up and build up the tea stains inside it. It used to make me feel it looked horrible.

 

I absolutely can't stand drinking from stained pots, and, now and again, I'd try and sneak it from him, and give it a sandblasting to get the muck off the inside. (Blech! Blech!) It was difficult as he knew what I'd do if I got my hands on his pint-pot, so would guard it with his life.

 

If I did sneak it away, and scour it out, he'd go absolutely bananas about it, and play merry hell. he'd say "The stinking tea just doesn't taste right, now!!! The stains added a bit of flavour!"

 

UGH!

 

The not washing should apply to the tea pot, not the drinking vessel!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gongfu_tea_ceremony

 

Cleaning up

 

Cleaning up is an important step in the ritual.

 

1. Brewed tea and tea leaves should not remain in the teapot after the ritual. The pot must be cleaned up thoroughly and rinsed with hot tea.

2. Utensils must be sterilized with boiling water.

3. The teapot should be rinsed with hot tea and the outside should be rubbed and polished with a good linen cloth.

4. A teapot should never be rinsed with water, nor washed with detergents or soaps.

5. The tea pot must be allowed to dry naturally.

6. The utensils and serving cups should be allowed to air dry on a tea tray.

[Rampent]

Wash the mug in Jason stuff, from Poundland.

[smithy266]

Mugs, or cups and saucers? We had to have cups and saucers when my mother used to visit! "You drink from a mug only at 11am, then it's coffee." These days, my preferred mug is any my daughter has bought me!